NEW YORK –
According to news reports today, federal prosecutors are preparing criminal
terrorism charges against Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri, the only individual to be
designated an "enemy combatant" by the Bush administration being held in
military detention on U.S. soil. The American Civil Liberties Union represents
al-Marri in his case before the U.S. Supreme Court challenging his illegal
designation as an "enemy combatant." A criminal indictment would not
automatically resolve the issues that are pending before the Supreme Court.

The following can be attributed to Jonathan Hafetz, staff attorney with the
ACLU National Security Project and lead counsel in al-Marri's case before the
Supreme Court:

"If true, the decision to charge al-Marri is an important step in restoring
the rule of law and is what should have happened seven years ago when he was
first arrested. But it is vital that the Supreme Court case go forward because
it must be made clear once and for all that indefinite military detention of
persons arrested in the U.S. is illegal and that this will never happen
again."

Al-Marri, a legal U.S. resident and Qatari national, has been detained in
solitary confinement at a Navy brig in South Carolina since June 2003. He was
first arrested in December 2001 at his home in Peoria, Illinois, where he was
living with his wife and children. His case was scheduled to go to trial in July
2003 on charges of credit card fraud and making false statements to the FBI, but
the case was halted on the eve of trial when President Bush took the
extraordinary step of designating him an "enemy combatant" and transferring him
to a South Carolina military brig. At the brig, al-Marri was detained
incommunicado for 16 months and subjected to torture and other abuse.